Possible reasons as to why if religion does die, it's not gonna be because of New Atheist arguments

[Denter]

Ill be attending the celebration of science and reason taking place in Chicago on February 10th. Awesome speakers there including Lawrence Krauss, Sam Harris and Matt Dillahunty. Can't wait to be among a collection of people who actually use their brains to think and people who reject childish fairy tales. Sorry, just had to get that in

I bet you are so much fun at parties.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Ill be attending the celebration of science and reason taking place in Chicago on February 10th. Awesome speakers there including Lawrence Krauss, Sam Harris and Matt Dillahunty. Can't wait to be among a collection of people who actually use their brains to think and people who reject childish fairy tales. Sorry, just had to get that in

 

[Tycho- Taylor's Version]

I'm not so sure about the first part since it seems that New Atheists never considered the full conversion of the majority to godlessness or for any type of Jewish or Christian belief to be talked about like being a flat earther as an "extreme objective". It seems they thought that those goals were core tenets of the movement. Ergo, it's not that clear how much they can really declare victory. And it does seem that a lot of us are in fact catching on that many of them are taking anti religion arguments that have been made for decades, centuries, millenia even, and conducting themselves as if noone thought to make these cases before them. As an intellectual movement it often seems to be where Elvis was in the 60s, 80s pop and dance was in 1992 or grunge in 1998. It will for sure have a regular cultural following but it's days of bringing in truly new ideas seem to be coming to a close.

I mean, maybe they talked a big game, but popularization of those two positions was always going to be a steep uphill battle in America.

I don't think the weakness in New Atheism was that they tried to pull some kind of trick that everyone is now onto (several chapters of Dawkins' book address the classical arguments, for example); their downside is that they tend to be obnoxious, and we're at a point now where their positions are so taken for granted that such an approach is no longer required.

The only case for that not being a victory is to say that everyone had already bought into what they were selling before they popped up, and the books flying off the shelves was just a kind of international circlejerk. Anecdotally I have a hard time believing that, but either way, articulation of their arguments is all over the place. A few guys in this very forum still use them word for word.

 

[Don Quixote]

 

[Madmick]

Meant to be a follow up to the thread on whether or not religion, and in particular Judaism and Christianity is destined to be extinct.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/24/how-did-new-atheism-fail-so-miserably/

The internet is killing religion. It's the second wave of Gutenberg's printing press (which already effectively killed clerical authority).

Anyone paying attention would have already noticed this following what happened-- and continues to happen-- to Mormonism. The weaker, more cultish religions are getting hit hardest, first, but the mainline religions won't be spared. Islam precedes the others, but neither will they survive, ultimately, the dissemination of the (en)light(enment).

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

I suppose a continued complete absence of evidence may eventually doom religious belief to the pages of history, but it's persisted for thousands of years without evidence, so....

 

[Denter]

The internet is killing religion. It's the second wave of Gutenberg's printing press (which already effectively killed clerical authority).

Anyone paying attention would have already noticed this following what happened-- and continues to happen-- to Mormonism. The weaker, more cultish religions are getting hit hardest, first, but the mainline religions won't be spared. Islam precedes the others, but neither will they survive, ultimately, the dissemination of the (en)light(enment).

This completely ignores WHY religion exists, it does not exist to tell us what is but how to act and how to orient ourselves. Reality can be bitten off into small chunks and explained, but it is altogether too vast for the human mind to compute. We need a system that filters the data into reliable categories to make decisions.

 

[ripskater]

The internet is killing religion. It's the second wave of Gutenberg's printing press (which already effectively killed clerical authority).

I don't think so Mick. I think it works both ways. There is certainly the atheist message out there that's more accessible, but with the internet and sermons/radio shows on my phone. I can mow the grass and listen to John MacArthur, and other preachers talk about the gospel, the Bible and the culture.

If I had to guess, I think there will be more people come back to Jesus Christ the next 2-3 years. I do think the pendulum swings.

 

[PrinceOfPain]

I think we'll start to see a resurgence of religion in the developed world over the next decade or two.
Atheism is pretty hollow, it's emptiness appears to leave a hole that science can't fill and aside from a small handful of public figures, it's advocates are mostly pretentious assholes whose intellect does not justify their arrogance.

 

[JonnyRingo84]

Meant to be a follow up to the thread on whether or not religion, and in particular Judaism and Christianity is destined to be extinct.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/24/how-did-new-atheism-fail-so-miserably/

im not religious, but i actually like most aspects of religious belief. i think the major world religions have been a net-gain for humanity. with that said, i think theyve lost much of their usefulness, and this fact alone has ALREADY begun their slow death.

a christian of the middle ages....any of them....would be considered an absolute religious fanatic today, even among other christians. any activity that was not required to survive, was expected to be faith based in some way. playing sports was sinful. all art forms were sinful that were not faith based. F'ing bright colored clothing was sinful. christians have gone from THAT, to even the billy grahams of the world being MUCH MUCH MUCH more watered down. faith is used to explain fewer and fewer things in life, even among the most religious of modern times. its a slow and inevitable process that will continue.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

This completely ignores WHY religion exists, it does not exist to tell us what is but how to act and how to orient ourselves. Reality can be bitten off into small chunks and explained, but it is altogether too vast for the human mind to compute. We need a system that filters the data into reliable categories to make decisions.

... of course, there are millions who live a morally upright life without believing in magical beings.

 

[DickSarp]

Atheists are dumbasses too. The only sane ones out here are agnostics. We don't know anything.

Multiverses, multiple realities, laws of physics, quantum physics, etc.....way too many questions to say yes or no or somewhere in the middle about afterlife, the G word, etc.

Prof. Hawking would disagree with you. Me too. I'm a Socialist what do you expect?

 

[DickSarp]

In the words of Bishop Bickering, "There is no god." And "You never ask a navy man if he'll have another drink, because it's nobody's goddamned business how much he's had already."

 

[Denter]

... of course, there are millions who live a morally upright life without believing in magical beings.

Well you believe in morality, which is magic, unfalsifiable and irrational. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, theist!

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Well you believe in morality, which is magic, unfalsifiable and irrational. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, theist!

This is all over the place.
Morality is magic?
What?

 

[ookii]

It's been declining for some time.

Happening without 'liberal hate speech laws' too. Go figure. Something else must be at play.

Chart seems pretty off. I don't think that as many 40% of millenials pray everyday or that as many as 55% of Gen X's pray every single day. Not because of them being christian but them being that devoted and doing it daily as a habit

 

[Scheme]

Atheists are dumbasses too. The only sane ones out here are agnostics. We don't know anything.

Multiverses, multiple realities, laws of physics, quantum physics, etc.....way too many questions to say yes or no or somewhere in the middle about afterlife, the G word, etc.

But the truly smart ones would realize that religion is simply a way of instilling a set of core values into people at a young age. People who take Christianity or Hinduism or Islam 100% literally are obviously complete idiots, but at it's core religion is simply a set of stories with themes and lessons. Without it, I imagine the dumb people of the world would become more nihilistic and dangerous (especially without the fear of divine retribution).

 

[Madmick]

This completely ignores WHY religion exists, it does not exist to tell us what is but how to act and how to orient ourselves. Reality can be bitten off into small chunks and explained, but it is altogether too vast for the human mind to compute. We need a system that filters the data into reliable categories to make decisions.

We unequivocally, irrefutably do not need that.

My post doesn't ignore the necessity of religion (as only a religious person would argue it). It simply notes how this darkness is chased away along with so much other ignorance by the advent of new technologies more effectively disseminating education and contentious ideas to the masses.

 

[MilesAbove]

As long as religion is out of power it doesn't matter if people want to believe in one thing or another. The problem is when it is involved in running people's lives outside of the congregation.

Have your faith. Enjoy it. Find strength in it. Don't use that strength to tell others what to do.

 

[unimackpass]

Science is continuously making atheism more challenging for free thinkers. They just don't have enough faith to be atheists anymore. Many are moving toward a more agnostic aproach.

For instance, the odds of the universe being fine tuned by chance is less than one to the amount of seconds since the beginning of time. Basically impossible.



Dawkins attempting to address this is really humorous actually, almost have to feel sorry for him. Talking about twisting yourself into a pretzel.